This invention relates to contests, and more particularly to an interactive sports contest system which allows remotely located participants to compete by optimizing the performance of their team rosters through the selection and trading of players.
Professional or college sports support a broad range of secondary competitions ranging from betting on the outcome of particular games to betting on a particular performance of a given player. Contests based upon player performances include the fantasy sports leagues such as fantasy baseball and fantasy football. In the fantasy sports leagues, sometimes called "rotisserie leagues", participants assume the position of an owner of an imaginary team. Prior to the beginning of a professional sport season, the owners conduct a "draft" of professional athletes to fill the roster of their team. As the imaginary teams usually employ the actual player positions in the sport, spots on the rosters are filled with players who play the particular position.
The drafting of players may take a variety of forms, including a bidding draft and a rotation draft. In the bidding draft, each owner is initially provided with a specific bankroll of bidding units which may be used to bid against other owners in an attempt to obtain a specific player. Alternatively, in the rotation draft, the owners determine an order of selection, and proceed through a number of rounds to fill out the rosters. However, under either draft structure, once a player has been drafted by an owner, that player is no longer available to other owners. Therefore, each owner must reprioritize the available players throughout the draft process. As in the professional sports leagues, the owners may trade players during the contest. Typically, after the draft, and throughout the season, the trades are made between owners, and between the players not selected in the initial draft. The teams in a fantasy sports league typically accumulate a "won-lost" record by competing head to head against each of the other teams in the league. In a "game" between two teams, the team whose players performed better in the previous week is declared the winner. Typically, each team competes on the cumulative statistics of the drafted players.
Other contests based upon sporting events have included officiating a given contest, as disclosed in the patent to Tovar (U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,526). Tovar discloses a contest based upon the signaling of infractions of the rules during a live sporting event. The infractions as perceived by the participants are compared to the actual calls made by an official, or referee of the game. The first participant to signal the occurrence of an infraction, that the official also signals, is awarded multiple points, while subsequent participants to signal the infraction are awarded a lesser number of points. The individual scores of the participants are accumulated, and the one having the highest score at the end of the sporting event is declared the winner.
Another game which may be played in conjunction with a sporting event is disclosed in Fascenda (U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,546). Fascenda discloses a game of skill playable by several remote participants in conjunction with a live sporting event, such as a televised football game. The Fascenda disclosure requires participants to predict a future variable of the live sporting event, wherein the participant's prediction is stored over the life of the live event. Subsequent to the live event, the participant's accumulated predictions are processed and compared to the actual occurrences of the game. The winner is the viewer most accurately predicting the events throughout the live sporting event.
These previous contests are really limited to participants that have an in-depth understanding of the relevant sport. In addition, the drafting of the fantasy sports leagues does not permit interactive competition by a large number of participants. Also, some interactive systems require the remote participants to use specialized equipment such as a transmitter/receiver used to interact while the sporting event is being played. When special equipment is required, the availability of the contest is further limited. In addition, the draft in the fantasy sports leagues requires at least one collective meeting of all the participants during the course of the contest. The necessity of these meetings makes it difficult for remote participants to compete.
Therefore, a need exists for a sports contest which provides interactive competition among a plurality of remote participants. There is a need for a contest in which participation does not require specialized equipment in order to enter or compete. In addition, a need exists for an interactive competition which does not hinge upon the simultaneous monitoring of a specific live event. There is also a need for an interactive competition which does not require a slavish time commitment by the participants to a predetermined professional sports schedule. A further need exists for an interactive sports contest which provides a periodic incentive for the application of skill and foresight.